By BRIAN SMITH
Sports Editor

CELINA — The Celina Bulldogs had enough of life beyond the arc and headed for a Green pasture down in the paint.

Celina’s 6-6 center Jake Green scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Bulldogs in a 53-48 win over the St. Marys boys basketball team on Friday night in Western Buckeye League action.

After watching St. Marys start the game with five three-pointers in the first quarter and grab a 15-8 lead after eight minutes of play, Celina head coach Chris Bihn focused on getting the ball into his big center against a St. Marys zone defense that was extended to stop the Bulldogs’ usually potent outside attack.

“I don’t think we went into the game with the plan of getting him the ball this much,” Bihn said. “We thought St. Marys was going to pack in that 2-3 zone they run. Well, they really spread that thing out. So getting it to Green became the gameplan. We went to a little high-low game to take advantage of the space created by the spread-out zone.”

Green made a living within five feet of the basket, often finding himself directly under the hoop itself only to use his wingspan to go up and under for baskets. And there’s not much the Riders could do to stop it, the Celina mentor said.

“Jake played very well for us tonight,” Bihn said. “He was a load for St. Marys to handle. He has such long reach. There were four or five times he got the ball, held it above his head, and their guys could reach the ball from there and he turned and put it in.”

Sadler saw Green as the x-factor in a game where the Riders were much more proficient from the perimeter than the Bulldogs.

“I think the difference in the game was their ability to get shots around the basket,” St. Marys head coach Paul Sadler said. “They were able to get those with Green and we were unable to get those shots. To our credit we shot it pretty well from the three-point line which gave us an excellent chance. But the team that gets more quality shots often wins the game.”

And St. Marys tried everything to push the Celina big man out of the lane.

“We tried fronting Green in the first half and we weren’t able to,” Sadler said. “Then we were able to front him and then the backside rotation wasn’t there.”

St. Marys began and ended the game with strong spurts. It was a tough two middle periods that doomed the Riders for the eighth time this season.

The strong start was a boon to a Roughrider team that came into Friday night shooting just 31 percent from the floor and 30 percent from beyond the arc. Adam Lininger led the Riders in scoring with 16 points, including five 3-pointers. Jake Taylor added 13.

Scott Kinkley drilled a three-pointer to tie the game at 3-3, followed by two straight treys by Adam Lininger. After Jake Taylor and Adam Lininger hit back-to-back three-pointers, the Riders found themselves up by seven points. The hot shooting cooled considerably in the second quarter though, as Bihn said he told his team to move up on Lininger and Taylor and get hands in their faces on the perimeter.

The win moves the surprising Bulldogs to 7-1 on the season and 2-0 in the WBL. Celina has already matched last year’s regular season win total and is just one victory away from tying last year’s total mark. Bihn said that Green has been a big part of his program’s revival this winter.

“Celina is an excellent team,” Sadler said. “We might not see a team as good as them the rest of the season the way they are playing right now.”

For St. Marys it was another heartbreaking loss — this time to a rival — in a season full of close ones that just fall short. St. Marys has been within five points of their opponents during the fourth quarter five times this season, coming up short each time. The Riders are 0-8, 0-2 in the WBL.

“Our guys are obviously disappointed for playing so hard and coming up short,” Sadler said.  

“This is the best 0-8 team I’ve ever seen,” Bihn said. “If they get things squared away, they are going to win some games yet.”

It’s a compliment that Sadler and his Riders have heard a few too many times this season from opposing coaches. Sadler says his team needs to not just build on performances like Friday’s, but then use them to catapult his team to victories.

“I told our guys that they have to somehow look at the big picture,” Sadler said. “This is a great step forward for us. For us to be down by ten points and give ourselves a chance is a step forward. But we’ve got to get more consistent and better shots in our offense. But tonight was a step forward.”
Bihn thinks that’s only a matter of time for Sadler’s crew.

St. Marys made a comeback after trailing by 10 through three quarters.

Jake Taylor hit a runner and two three-pointers in a three straight possessions to put the Riders to within 48-46 with three minutes left in the game.

Green was too strong, muscling his way for two points to push the lead to four and then dropping two of four free throws to ice the game for the Bulldogs.

Meanwhile, St. Marys couldn’t take much advantage of being in the bonus with three minutes left in the third quarter. The Riders went 6-for-14 from the charity stripe in the second half.

“That’s a confidence thing,” Sadler said. “When you’re given free points, you have to take advantage of that. We recognized we were in the bonus early and we wanted to be aggressive. We wanted to get inside, but Celina made it tough for us to do that.”

“We’re deep enough that we were able to weather that kind of foul trouble,” Bihn said.

St. Marys’ early first quarter cushion disappeared fast in the second period as Celina overcame a tough shooting quarter by hitting  the offensive glass. Celina took a 26-24 lead to the half by outrebounding the Riders 9-3 in the period and going 7-for-9 from the charity stripe.

The lead flip-flopped in favor of the Bulldogs with less than two minutes before the half.  A foul and then a technical foul gave Darin Waterman four straight free throws and sent the Bulldogs to the half with their first lead since it was 3-0.  Waterman pitched in 17 points for Celina.

The Riders trailed at the half despite shooting 9-of-16 from the floor in the half, including 5-of-11 from beyond the arc.  St. Marys finished the game 9-for-26 from behind the arc.

St. Marys held Celina leading scorer Derek Gagle to 11 points. Gagle hit two three-pointers in the first quarter, but was quiet after that as he battled foul trouble and a St. Marys zone defense honed in on the slashing senior point guard.

The Celina junior varsity team beat the Riders, 34-27.

St. Marys hosts Defiance on Friday, Jan. 16 for a Western Buckeye League match-up with another Bulldog squad.